Open AccessMemes in medical education
Author(s) -
Ye Kyung Song,
Jerome W. Crowder
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
medicine anthropology theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2405-691X
DOI - 10.17157/mat.6.2.714
Subject(s) - professionalization , visual media , perception , debt , public relations , sociology , space (punctuation) , meaning (existential) , media studies , psychology , political science , business , social science , multimedia , computer science , finance , neuroscience , psychotherapist , operating system
Memes are highly malleable forms of visual media that provide insight into the dominant discourses within a community. This essay presents the top meme posts on /r/medicalschool, a thread on Reddit, an anonymous news-aggregating site, which are the most discussed posts by users, who are predominantly medical students. Within this digital space, users attempt to make meaning of the process of professionalization and what their new roles have in store for them. Studying those memes’ accompanying comments, we find that the majority of posts center on perceptions of diminishing professional authority. These perceptions likely stem from an ontological insecurity due to significant financial burdens, debt, and risk involved in going to medical school.